Accorded the stature of demigods, elite sportspersons are always expected to be invincible on and off the field. But with many opening up about the mental toll their journeys have taken, Swaroop Swaminathan fleshes out the current need to have open talks...
T’S that familiar sinking feeling for Virat Kohli. He may have spent 80 minutes in the middle, his second longest stay in the series, but he has just nicked one to the slip cordon.
As he is walking back, journalists in the press box start writing obituaries. “He can’t play swing,” is the gist of one. “Kohli fails again,” reads another. “Look at the bright side... A nightmare series is over for him,” is the summary of the third.
As the then 25-year-old removes his pads and occupies his seat, he begins to ruminate about the last two months. His troubles against the moving ball during the England Tour of 2014 — 134 runs in 10 innings — have left him in a dark place. A nightmare may be over, but the demons inside Kohli’s head are telling him otherwise. “End of the world” is how he described those feelings a few weeks ago, when he’d come out in support of Glenn Maxwell decision to take a break from cricket.
The Indian skipper was fairly intimate with what he was going through. “I just didn’t know what to do. What to say to anyone. How to speak. How to communicate. I could have said that I am not feeling great mentally and need to get away from the game. But you never know how that’s taken. It should be fine for cricketers to take a break, and try and return refreshed. What Glenn has done is remarkable. It has set the right example for cricketers all over the world that if you are not in the best frame of mind you try, and try, and try. But as human beings, you reach a tipping point at some stage or the other.”
On October 27, Maxwell did the one thing that he is renowned for: 62 off 28 in a T20I against Sri Lanka. Even as he was flaying the Lankan bowlers, his mind was singing a different tune: “I need help.”
A meeting with Australia coach Justin Langer and team psychologist Michael Lloyd followed. One of the great entertainers of the modern game was going to put his career on hold to let his mind heal.
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“A year in an athlete’s life is an eternity”.
If this apocryphal saying is true, what about an Olympic cycle? Relationships and new beginnings are routinely put on hold in the pursuit of excellence. Sportspersons sign up for four years of toil to be at their optimum best for two weeks. Dreams and hopes replace carbohydrates and sugars. Their life, at least temporarily, becomes an endless cycle of military-style training sessions at locations not found on maps.
As a 14-year-old in 2010, Missy Franklin willingly signed up for this unforgiving vortex. It paid off in 2012: four gold in the pool at London Games put her front and centre. She was the “next Michael Phelps”. Her name was plastered on hoardings, everywhere from New York to Sydney. When the caravan shifted to Rio de Janeiro four years later, the world looked towards her for inspiration.
In the intervening four years, something snapped. One gold at a relay event was all Franklin managed. “I wish I had an excuse, but I don’t,” was her nutshell. Eighteen months removed from Brazil, Franklin finally opened up. “I had the best year of training I’ve ever had. That meant nothing, because I was mentally in such a terrible place. I was useless. My body was useless.”
Closer home, an India cricketer is going through this exact thing. Touted to be a future star, he has been struggling due to time spent away from home. On most days, daily practice as well as preparing for matches tire him to such an extent that he has been advised to take time away from the sport. He had even reported about it to BCCI, who asked him to take it slow.Even though he has been doing that, he doesn’t want to do anything that could jeopardise his chances. A break from the game is a no-no.
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Ashleigh Barty is one of the most recognised tennis players on the planet. The 23-year-old is living her dream; winning Majors and being the best in her business.It wasn’t always like this. In September 2014, she was sick of tennis. She was exhausted, depressed and hated the sight of a court. So, the then teenager switched to cricket. “It was too much too quickly for me, as I’ve been travelling from quite a young age,” Barty had noted. “I wanted to experience life as a normal teenaged girl, and have some normal experiences.”
What all these examples say is one simple thing: there is an urgent need to have a serious conversation about mental-health issues among athletes.Elite sportspersons are supposed to be children of God. Their industrial-level biceps and incredibly-toned physiques supposedly the sole reflection of their world. But when these brave men and women lift the curtain every once in a while, they are as vulnerable as the mortals who pay thousands to watch them on TV or at stadia around the world.
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During Question Hour on Thursday, the government’s minister of health and family welfare revealed that 10.6 per cent of Indian adults (over 18) suffer from a form of mental disorder. The global average is higher. It’s reported that between 20 and 25 per cent of adults need treatment for a mental-health condition at some point of time. As per a World Health Organisation release issued on Wednesday, “more than 264 million people of all ages suffer from depression. It is also a leading cause of disability worldwide and is a major contributor to the overall burden of disease.” What makes matters worse from the Indian context is lack of accessibility.
“There is currently an 800 per cent shortage in India when it comes to health-care professionals in this field,” says Divya Jain, head of Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences at Fortis Healthcare in New Delhi.
Jain, who spoke to the entire Indian contingent before last year’s Youth Olympic Games, says the stigma surrounding mental health results in people not readily coming forward to seek help. “How will people perceive this?”
This is why Jain is happy to see the likes of Kohli and Maxwell talking about the issue. “The good thing is that Kohli and Maxwell have spoken about it. So other people might begin to talk about it. They have started this conversation. If they come to us, we can help.”Maninder Singh is one former cricketer who searched for this sort of guidance. He progressed too soon. The label of “next Bishen Singh Bedi’ was thrust on his teenaged shoulders. That pressure wore him down. “I did speak to a few senior cricketers. But I would have liked to have some guidance from a professional,” says Maninder. “I heard a lot about Maninder being the next Bedi at 19. When you hear stuff like that, you put too much pressure on yourself.
“I mean, Bedi took time to become Bedi. Here I was, trying to become a Bedi at 19.”Even though Maninder had a few conversations regarding his mental health, nothing concrete came out of those sessions. He let it fester. The end result was early retirement.
Maninder played his last game for India before turning 30; an unfulfilled career. Even after he stopped playing, he felt he had “lost my way a bit in life”. That’s when the penny dropped, so “I took help”. Maninder feels that he could have continued playing in his 30s if he had sought help back then.
This is exactly where sportspersons have to be extra cautious. According to Jain, though the mental-health problems faced by common folk and athletes are similar in nature, the latter can face battles with depression, anxiety and imposter syndrome because of factors like “high competition for places, lifestyle, spending time away from family, and injuries”.
This stigma can also force athletes to build a facade. “Perceived stigma by general society as well as the unique pressures placed on athletes can lead to an internalised shame about having a mental illness,” says sports psychologist Kristin Keim, who is also a member of the US Olympic Committee Sport Psychology and Mental Training Registry.
“This internalised pressure can often turn into guilt or shame, and lead to athletes not seeking proper mental-health resources. It’s important that we increase the awareness around mental illness and how to end the stigma in society and various sport cultures.” Jain goes further to say that “we should start treating it like a physical illness.”
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Both Maxwell and Barty stepped away from their sport for some time. Kohli and Franklin continued.
Interestingly, there isn’t any right or wrong way to handle what they’ve gone through. Keim is of the opinion that “it is hard to say what is best because everyone is different”. But she does say that “stepping away is not a sign of weakness, but it takes even more strength and courage to be vulnerable and reach out for help in to protect your mental health and well-being”.
“Taking a break also allows athletes to work on their other identities and interests, which can be quite enriching while reconnecting with family and friends. Research has also shown that when athletes step away, they increase their ability to gain perspective on their purpose and intentions about their sport.”
On Thursday, Maxwell returned to training with Victoria’s Sheffield Shield squad. Nobody knows if or when he will play for Australia. But what was important was that he was given time and space away from the game.Ultimately, like Michael Phelps once said, “it’s okay to not be okay”.
